In Australia, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and so is brunch and lunch and dinner. There are no two ways about it. Australians love their food. Whether it's a three-course meal for dinner or just a snack. snack on the run.
Food plays a massive role in the life of every Australian. But what is Australian food? Is it the Sunday roast? Is it spaghetti bolognese?
The dim sim? Or even a late night kebab? Australia is made up of many different cultures and they all bring their own cuisines and ingredients to the table. As a result, Australian meals have become a blend of many different menus which have now merged and become known as Australian food.
But what are these direct influences that have had such an impact on our meal times? Throughout the course of this program I'm going to set out to explore what it is that makes Australian food Australian and have a meal or two along the way. Australian food can best be described as foods that have been influenced by those who have settled here.
The biggest and earliest influences on Australian food came from the British, way back when Australia was first colonised. After the first fleet arrived and colonies were established in Australia, the Colonials didn't really like the kinds of food Australia offered. They tried their hand at eating stuffed wombat and fried echidna. How you eat an echidna? I don't know.
But none of these these meals really took off. So the colonials brought over their own cuisines from England by shipping over crops and animals, as well as flour, to make bread and damper. They also brought over rabbits for game hunting. But the rabbits bred and went wild over the course of a couple of hundred years, And now they're everywhere.
The Colonials set the rhythm for Australian food with the likes of pastries filled with vegetables and meat, which we now call pies. And everything was washed down with a nice cup of tea. These British-influenced cuisines are commonly referred to as unfussy dishes, like the meat and three veg combo. Take your meat and three veg.
The meat usually comprises of either beef, pork, or lamb, a couple of green vegetables, like peas and broccoli, and then topped off by a root vegetable, which is usually mashed or boiled potatoes. Unlike the stuffed wombat, the meat and three veg combo has stood the test of time. Here at the Charles Dickens Tavern, they still serve the old colonial style meals that really haven't changed that much over the years. For breakfast, you've got what we call a full breakfast. It's a huge meal that covers a whole heap of different food groups, with bacon and eggs, tomatoes, hash browns and mushrooms.
And it's all fried. Another British influence that's also fried is fish and chips. It originated as a cheap and popular takeaway food and was adapted and adopted by Australia. You take your fish and traditionally it's cod or flounder. Most places in Australia use flake which comes from any one of several species of shark.
But you have to have your flake with something and chips are the all time favourite. The chips of the fish and chips combo are not like the traditional American fries. The Australian and British chips are thick slab-cut chunks of potato that are deep-fried and served up with a healthy portion of tomato sauce or vinegar. Thanks.
But the crown jewel of British influence on Australian food is the Sunday roast. It's said that the tradition of the Sunday roast arose during the Industrial Revolution, when families would leave the meat in the oven before they went to church, so it would be ready by the time they got home. The Sunday roast is a seasonal meal and it changes slightly depending on where it's cooked.
but it's usually beef, pork or lamb. This is roast beef with roast potatoes, pumpkin and carrots. The whole thing is doused in gravy that's made from the meat dripping and corn flour. Almost any other vegetable dish can still be added to the Sunday roast, like cauliflower cheese, green beans or cabbage, and it will still be your traditional Sunday roast. The influence of British foods and traditions set the benchmark for what we consider Australian food to be today.
The first colonists to Australia cultivated many crops and animals from their homeland. we have inherited and adapted many cuisines from the British, such as meat pies, fish and chips, and the Sunday roast. In 1851 gold was found in Bathurst, then in Warrandyte, Ballarat and Bendigo. It was gold, gold, gold. Prospectors flocked from all around the nation in search of their fortune and glory.
In no time at all, word of the Australian gold rush spread across the globe and people came from far and wide to stake their claim. A large number of those claiming their stake came all the way from China and 150 years ago that was the case. That was quite a long boat trip. The Chinese settled in the gold rush areas and as time passed they migrated to other parts of the country and brought with them new and unique spices and cuisines. As the years went on and the gold mining industry bottomed out, many Chinese moved on to market gardening and grew crops that included cauliflower, leafy vegetables and herbs.
Nowadays Chinese food is a staple of the Australian food landscape and no matter what town you're you're sure to find a Chinese restaurant. We're here now at Kwan Ju, one of Australia's oldest Chinese restaurants. First established in 1864, it's famous both here and overseas for its roast duck.
Thank you. Because there are so many cultural differences from region to region within China, the local cuisines differ greatly. They can roughly be broken down into four main styles of Chinese cuisine. From the west, there's Sichuan, which uses bold spicy flavours and has dishes like twice cooked pork and Kung Pao chicken.
From the south there's Cantonese style dishes like chicken, beef or pork cooked in less spices so that the main ingredients don't become overwhelmed. A lot of the meals are steamed or stir-fried. They produce dishes like fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and steamed frog legs on lotus leaf.
Shandong cuisines incorporate a lot of seafood into their dishes, such as scallops, prawns and squid. And the Hunan cuisines from eastern China are known for their use of peppers and chillies that are mixed in with a selection of cold meats. A lot of the traditional Chinese foods and flavours brought to Australia have been adapted to many other dishes, the dishes.
making them a fusion of different cuisines and also uniquely Australian. Take the dim sim, for example. At first glance, you'd assume that the dimmy originated somewhere in the mountains of China thousands of years ago. But it didn't. The dim sim was invented in Melbourne by William Wing Young and is a perfect example of two cultures blending together and producing a fresh dish.
For years, they were called mystery bags because nobody really knew what was in them. But generally, the dimi is filled with pork, cabbage, and flavourings, then deep fried or steamed. All fish and chips shops sell dim sims, but I'm pretty sure that if you went to China and tried to order one, all you'd get would be a blank stare. Chinese cuisine has had a huge influence on Australian culture. We have adopted and adapted many of the dishes from the four great traditions of the Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong and Hunan cuisines, and even invented new Chinese-inspired dishes such as the dim sim.
It's impossible to talk about Australian food without mentioning European and Italian influences. Here at Brunetti, there are plenty of traditional cakes, coffees and dishes to choose from. From their famous hot chocolate to their pasta dishes and gelato, from the moment you walk into Brunetti, you know you're going to leave satisfied. Michelangeli, whose family now runs Brunetti, started working in an Italian cafe at the age of 10 before migrating to Australia like many other Europeans.
Up until the end of the 50s, Australian diets consisted mainly of foods with a British influence. But with the mass migration of Europeans in the 60s and 70s, the taste palettes of Australians changed forever. Tea was quickly passed over as the hot beverage of choice after being replaced by espresso coffee.
And the new tastes of pizza and pasta made their mark on Australian cuisine. European food has a huge history dating as far back as 4,000 years BC. A lot of time has passed since then and menus and recipes have evolved and been refined.
people think of European or Italian food. They usually think of pastas and pizzas. But it's so much more than that. Italian cuisine brought to Australia garlic, olives, olive oil, cheese, a range of different herbs, and many different kinds of vegetables. Meal time is very important in European culture and is seen It's more of an opportunity to spend time with friends and family than just to fill your belly.
So it's not uncommon for many meals to have multiple courses and some can even last half the day. The more traditional Italian menu is usually only seen around special occasions. occasions like weddings or birthdays and has around seven courses including cheese and antipasto before breads, broths and salads, pasta, meat and main dishes and a series of desserts. And if you've still got any room left, the feast is topped off with a nice coffee and a biscotti.
Out of all the influences on Australian food, the European is the biggest. And as we did with the British and Chinese, we have made the Italian... influences our own.
One of the biggest takeaway foods in Australia is pizza. An oven baked meal with a whole range of different toppings that you can pick and choose depending on what your taste buds are craving. Pizza has its Italian heritage but but it's gone global now. America has pizza.
India has pizza. The whole world has pizza. But no matter what country you're in, you can be sure that the pizza you order is going to come with its own local influences.
In Australia, we Australianize our version of a pizza and even called it the Aussie. An Aussie pizza has a tomato base with mozzarella cheese, which is nothing out of the ordinary. But what defines it as truly Australian is the bacon, egg and ham that goes on next.
Which is funny when you think about it, because eggs, bacon and ham are usually a breakfast meal. And it was a breakfast meal that we originally adopted from the British. Italian cuisine has had a major influence on Australian food in the past 50 years. Meals like pastas, lasagna and pizza are now so commonplace that they are all a part of most mainstream Australian dishes. Bush food, or bush tucker, comes straight from the earth.
It's known for its intense flavours, nutritional value, and is the food Aborigines lived on for thousands of years. As we mentioned before, when the Colonials came to Australia, they didn't like the native foods, so they cultivated their own crops and set the benchmark for what we consider Australian food to be today. But that didn't stop Aborigines from harvesting their own crops and in recent years, native Australian food has made a comeback. Have a look at this.
On the Australian emblem, there's a kangaroo and an emu. We eat both of them, as well as crocodiles. and goannas.
There are many different types of native Australian foods, like herbs, spices and fruits. What makes them unique from other foods is that Australian native foods are harvested from the wild and are not cultivated in the traditional sense. They don't have any preservatives or chemicals, which makes their flavors so much more intense.
Because of the strength of their flavor, they can't be used like other ingredients. They have to be used in smaller amounts and in different ways. We're at Chinabi right now.
It's a restaurant that specializes in serving native Australian foods. There are things on the menu like kangaroo, wallaby, emu, as well as a whole range of spices and chutneys. Kangaroosaurus, jump meat, or kangaroo meat, has been eaten by Aborigines for 40 years. 40,000 years and only recently has it been accepted on menus alongside dishes like pork or lamb. It's low in fat and has a much stronger flavor than most other meats, yet it can be prepared in the same way and served with the same types of side dishes like vegetables and salads.
The same goes for wallaby. At Shanabi, the menu is constantly challenging our taste buds. Thank you.
Have a look at this. We've got wallaby and kangaroo with what we do. warragul spinach served with rosella and pepper berry juice.
You can't get more Australian than that. Because kangaroos and wallabies have never been commercially raised, their meat is found to be extremely tender and has a stronger taste than other types of meats available. It really does taste amazing. We've also got wild rosella, which comes from the northern coastal areas of Australia and has a tart raspberry flavor.
We've got pepper berry, which has been used instead of regular pepper. It serves the same function but has a little bit more tang to it. But what's really different is the kangaroo and wallaby meat wrapped in prosciutto.
Prosciutto is a traditional Italian ham which is usually enjoyed as a cold meat. It's just another example of Australia taking ingredients from other cultures and infusing them into meals. Bush tucker is the oldest type of Australian food and one of the last to become a traditional dish. a common staple in Australian diets. Because most native Australian foods are harvested wild, it's sometimes difficult to maintain a regular crop.
But in the last 20 years, all of that has changed. Harvesters in native foods are growing and companies like Robins Foods are sourcing ingredients from all around the country and using them in their chutneys and sauces, which are now selling internationally as well. Australian native bush foods have been around for 40,000 years. They're wild harvested, which means they are not genetically altered in any way, and taste pretty much the same as they did thousands of years ago.
Nowadays, bush tucker is on the menu of restaurants all around the country, and bush food products are sold all around the world. Australian cuisine is constantly evolving. If you said the words Australian cuisine a couple of years ago, people would think you were talking about pavlovas, lamingtons and vegemite. And they'd be almost right.
But nowadays, Australian cuisine is much, much more. Because of all the different influences over the years, such as the British, Chinese and European, Australia has become a melting pot for so many different cuisines. What the chefs are doing now is...
merging these different influences together to create fresh, new dishes in what is sometimes referred to as fusion foods. Australian chefs are not tied down to only one cooking style, like Thai or French cuisine. Because Australia is multicultural and and we have many different culinary influences, Australian chefs can pretty much do what they want, which is exactly what they do. There isn't anybody sitting on the sidelines telling them a dish they're making is un-Australian, because what is considered to be Australian is so broad and undefined, it could be pretty much anything. The Union Club Hotel is one of the many places in Australia that serves modern Australian cuisine, or fusion food.
Thanks. But what is fusion food exactly? Is it mixing?
Mixing a meat pie and a gelato to make a meat pie gelato? I don't think so. I asked the chefs out back and they told me that fusion food can best be described as a style of cooking that breaks all the traditional rules of cooking by mixing spices and ingredients from two different cultures. This new and innovative approach to Australian cuisine has opened the doors to a world where everything is possible.
Meals like witchetty grub pasta or cod with wasabi sauce are popping up on Australian menus all over the country. Take this chicken sandwich for example. At first glance it just looks like your typical sandwich. On closer inspection, sure, it's got crunched schnitzel, beetroot, cheese and tomato. But it's also using ingredients from other cultures, such as aioli, a sauce made of garlic and oil from Europe that's traditionally used on seafood or vegetables.
Then there's the bread. It's Turkish bread. A little bit tougher than traditional Australian bread and a bit denser in consistency, but its addition along with the aioli sauce, makes this chicken club sandwich uniquely Australian. Modern Australian cuisine is sometimes called fusion food. This is because chefs are mixing ingredients from one culture and fusing them with another in a way that makes a dish unique to Australia.
The best thing about Australian cuisine is that it's always changing and is constantly evolving. What we call Australian food today is different to what we called it 100 years ago and will probably be different again from what we call it 100 years from now. But what's important is that we understand how our national cuisine came to be what it is today.
From the British influences of the colonial days, to the impact of Chinese and European flavours, and to the style we now call fusion, they are part of not only our history, but also our national identity.